Fifty years after his first movie appearance and in his 23rd outing, James Bond has proved to be more popular than ever, with Skyfall enjoying the highest grossing weekend of any film in the series.

Sam Mendes's film, which has drawn rapturous reviews from critics, took £20.1m at the UK box office – the biggest opening of the year so far and the second largest gross ever for an opening weekend, after last year's final instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Quantum of Solace, the previous Bond film, took an initial £14.4m.

Skyfall, which stars Daniel Craig opposite Javier Bardem as the villain, Dame Judi Dench as "M" and newcomers Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw, was also top of the box office charts in 24 overseas markets and has yet to open in the US, where it arrives on 9 November. With $77m already registered at the global box office, it is on course to easily outpace 2006's Casino Royale (with $586m) as the most successful Bond film of all time.

Skyfall, which sees 007 criss-crossing the globe while MI6 and M come under threat from a cyberterrorist plot, is one of the best-reviewed Bond films since the Sean Connery era.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian praised Mendes's ability to pull off "a hugely enjoyable action spectacular" for the 50th anniversary of the series, which began in 1962 with Dr No.

"From the opening in Istanbul to the final siege shootout in the Scottish Highlands, this film is a supremely enjoyable and even sentimental spectacle, giving us an attractively human (though never humane) Bond," he wrote. "Despite the title, he is a hero who just keeps on defying gravity."

Bond's next outing will be based on a two-part original story by John Logan, the screenwriter of Martin Scorsese's film Hugo. Logan, who co-wrote Skyfall with retiring regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, has been hired to oversee the scripts for Bond films 24 and 25 by the production company Eon after pitching his idea to the series producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson.

As with most of the recent efforts – the exception being Craig's debut in Casino Royale – the next two films are not based on any particular book by Ian Fleming, who created Bond.

Logan's other credits include Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Scorsese's The Aviator and the Oscar-winning animated movie Rango. Reports suggest Craig has already signed on to play Bond at least twice more, implying that he will appear in both of Logan's films. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace (2008) are the only previous two-part story in the series.

With her seventh Bond film about to hit the big screen, Judi Dench shows no sign, even at 77, of curbing her enormous drive. Tim Adams talks to her about painting landscapes, playing M and why she hates to be alone on stage